


You Are My Flashlight

by struggling_teen



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, First Meeting, Fluff, Meet-Cute, because big sis Wynonna is best Wynonna, it’s in the job description, mostly - Freeform, officer haught, protecting and serving, protective older sister, smol Waverly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 19:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20458508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/struggling_teen/pseuds/struggling_teen
Summary: Waverly Earp has a severe phobia of the dark. Nicole quickly learns this when the power at the store that they’re in goes out. Drawn to the timid girl, Nicole offers to assist Waverly in finding Wynonna. The older Earp’s shifty behavior does little to win Nicole over, but there may be more than meets the eye with the seemingly preoccupied Earp.





	You Are My Flashlight

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot was actually inspired by a prompt, and it’s definitely been too long since I’ve seen it to remember what it was, but it had to do with the phobia of darkness.

I never had to imagine being in this situation and I, therefore, never had to prepare for how to handle it, but here I am. And here she is, tucked under my arm, shivering violently. 

“Ma’am, are you okay?”, I knew it was a stupid question before it even left my mouth, but I didn’t know what else to say. She just whimpered and nodded against my side, tucking her face between her arms and wrinkling my shirt between her hands. 

“I don’t-“, her teeth chattered, cutting her own sentence in two, “-like the dark.” 

“I’m so-“, she took two deep breaths, “-sorry. And cold.”

It had occurred to me before that she might have a fear of the dark. Actually, it occurred to me the second the lights buzzed and flashed off with a loud crack, sending her arms right around the nearest person’s waist. The nearest person being a stranger and that stranger being me. But it became apparent how afraid she was when I noticed the dampness of her tears through my shirt. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay”, I wanted to reassure her. “You have nothing to apologize for-“, I speak softly to her, as I reposition myself so she is hugging my front, “-absolutely nothing.” 

I heard a small squeak of protest when my movement caused a bit of space between us. She pressed herself flush against me, squeezing my sides with opposite hands. “Ma’am, I want to-“, I let my voice trail off when I thought I heard her say something. 

“Waverly”, she uttered the word again, louder, pulling her face away from the fabric of my shirt only long enough to avoid muffling the sound. 

“Waverly?”  _ Oh, that’s her name.  _ “Waverly. That’s a beautiful name”, I said honestly.

“Waverly, I want to help you, but I need to know what you’re comfortable with and what will make it worse”, I tucked the hair hanging in my face behind my ear, waiting for her response. 

“Please-“, she breathed raggedly through her tears, “-just don’t leave me alone.”

“I won’t”, I whispered immediately, “I promise.” I hesitantly placed my arms around the vulnerable girl’s shoulders, pulling myself to her even more. She jumped a little in surprise, but made no move to remove my arms from her. Her trembling frame was hunched against mine, but I’d estimate that at full height she’d still be quite a bit shorter than me. So, when I craned my neck down to make my lips level with her ear, my chin was almost completely flat against my own chest. 

“Can you talk to me?”, I whispered into her hair, which was falling down her back and bunching up around her neck. I felt her nod her head and assumed she meant yes. “Have you always had this reaction to the dark?”, I spoke softly and slowly. I felt her nod again. “Have you ever taken any measures to be prepared in a situation like this?”, I asked, aware that I was questioning her, almost like a suspect. I didn’t feel a nod, but this time I heard her voice shakily make its way into my ears, “I never…leave the house...without a flashlight...at least.” She drew in a sudden, deep breath and tried to speak through her quivering breathing, “But, it broke….last night. Wyn-....Wynonna went to get…me a new one.” 

“If Wynonna is getting you a new one, why are you here?”, I don’t tend to hack on people about their reasons for needing to go to the store at two in the morning, because I often find myself in similar positions of last-minute forgetfulness, but considering the situation, I figured it was the right thing to do. 

“She never came back”, her cries doubled up, as she seemed to revisit some earlier thoughts, “What if-“

“Shhhh”, I interrupted her, knowing that she needed to calm down and that her line of thought was not helping. “We need to worry about you, okay? I’m sure Wynonna’s just fine and as soon as the power comes back on and we get you that flashlight, I’ll help you find her.”, I meant every word too. I’d drive all night to find this Wynonna person, if I knew it’d make Waverly feel better.

“You’re so kind…”, this time her sentence trailed off because she didn’t know what to call me and this made me realize I hadn’t even told her my name. “Officer H- Nicole, just call me Nicole”, I smiled briefly. Waverly is the first person I’ve introduced myself to as just me in this town. 

“Nicole”, she tried my name out on her tongue, “You’re very kind, Nicole.”

Waverly leans her whole weight on me when a loud crackling noise sounds from all around and startles her. I catch her weight easily, helping her steady herself before backing up from her. The buzz of people, and human life in general, fill my ears and my eyes adjust to the light. For the first time really, I take in the appearance of the girl who was just a few minutes ago, having a panic attack on my chest. I know now that I really shouldn’t be saying girl, because the accurately guessed shorter woman is most definitely that, a woman. Her long, soft hair falls around her shoulders, shaping her tear stained face. She’s wearing a grey-knit sweater and blue jeans, with some kind of lightly dyed leather shoes. I drag my gaze back up to her face and she glances up at me, her cheeks red from embarrassment. I smile at her. A real, full on smile; she’s just too cute. My face heats up at my own thought and I decide to compose myself, before approaching Waverly, who had returned to the side of the aisle where she was before the power went out. 

She’s looking intently at the shelves of flashlights when I walk up behind her. “Hey, Waves”, an idea struck me suddenly. She spins around quickly, alarmed by my voice. I raise my hands in surrender jokingly and give her a friendly smile.

“Oh, uh, hi. You scared me”, she laughs nervously, looking to the right of my shoulder instead of at me. 

“I keep a spare flashlight in my truck. It’s brand-new and has extra batteries. It’s the same model and make of the ones we use on the force”, I’m not one to get excited over a flashlight, but this one has a laser pointer, so, I may have been a little enthusiastic. She looks very confused by where I’m trying to go with this and I decide to go out on a limb, “Why don’t we go see if we can find that Wynonna you mentioned earlier?”

“Wynonna? Oh, yeah! My sister, she’s M.I.A.!”, she seems to be knocked out of whatever kind of daze she was in and straight into worry-central. 

“Wynonna’s your sister?”, I ask as I lead her to where my truck is parked; thankfully very close to the stores’ entrance.

“Yes. Wynonna Earp, Waverly Earp”, she replies absentmindedly, gesturing to herself when she says her name, not very bothered by me asking a question she answered literally five seconds before. I pull a black case from under the seat of my truck, laying it in the middle of the seat. “Do you know anywhere she might’ve stopped on her way here? Where she might have been when the power went out?”

I step out of the way and let Waverly slide into the passenger side, before shutting the door carefully and jogging to the other side. I get in and start up the truck, still waiting to be told a destination. 

“Shorty’s”, she says, without a second thought. I pretend not to be at least a little surprised, but it’s kinda hard to hide that kind of shock.  _ Why would she be at a bar? _

“Shorty’s it is then”, I say, putting the truck in gear and heading out of the parking lot. I shift my hands on the steering wheel and throw a glance at Waverly, before returning my eyes to the road immediately. She was reading a text and the lambency from her phone lit up her features well. She looks beautiful, almost angelic in the pearlescent glow. 

“Waverly”, I say softly, barely loud enough to be heard above the truck. She looks up at me, eyebrows furrowed like she’s questioning if she is hearing things. 

“Yeah?”, she asks so lightly, she’s almost whispering. 

“You see that case on the seat by you?”, I nod in its general direction. She places a hand on it and taps twice, asking silently if I mean that one, an eyebrow lifted to convey sarcasm. I nod, forgetting to speak and she moves it onto her lap. She doesn’t do anything else until I say, “Open it. I want you to have it.” 

She looks at me before hesitantly popping the latches open and lifting the lid. She removes the slick, black flashlight slowly, stopping to poke at the soft foam mold that held the light in place. I crack a grin at her behavior and notice that we are almost at Shorty’s. I pull in front of the bar and put the truck in park. Waverly is still just running her fingers over the cool metal of the light. 

“It’s strong enough to see at least two hundred yards clearly and it’s heavy enough that if you need to, you can just-“, I make a whacking motion, implying that it could be used to knock somebody out. She giggles and returns the light to its case. 

“Thank you-”, she says, “-but I’ll try to not need to do that.” I return her smile and get out of the truck. Waverly meets me at the front of the truck and we walk into the bar together. As soon as I step into the bar, a bar stool collides with the wall less than a foot to my left. I recover from the shock in time to wrap my arms around Waverly and spin her out of the way of a rather large man, who is being literally  _ kicked _ out of the bar. Stumbling after the man, a woman clad in all leather, angrily exclaims, “If you ever get in the way of me, when I’m telling you my sister needs me, again, I will shove a saloon door so far up your-“ 

“Wynonna!”,Waverly shouts, causing the audacious woman to swivel toward her in surprise. “Waverly?!”, she saunters toward us, raking her eyes over me as she gets closer. “What’re you doing here, baby-girl?”, she questions Waverly, while giving her a one armed hug. “And who’s the tall-drink-of-water?”, she nods toward me, her voice sultry, although she doesn’t spare me a second glance. 

“The tall-drink-of-water is Nicole. Officer Nicole Haught-”, I assert, offering her a hand to shake, “-and I drove your sister here because she was worried that something had happened to you.”

I lower my hand to my side without receiving a handshake, because Wynonna chooses to ignore it in exchange for Waverly’s shoulders.

“You brought the cops into this?”, she snaps, like she’s afraid of something. I furrow my brows in concern, but choose to not question it, instead, letting Waverly offer up an explanation. 

“Chill out, Wynonna”, she brushes her sister’s hands from her shoulders and crosses her arms. “I waited for hours for you to come home, but you didn’t. So, I hitched a ride to the store.”, Waverly probably wasn’t done speaking, but Wynonna and I both cut her off with the same concern. 

“You hitchhiked? That’s so dangerous!”, Waverly looks at us with an amused expression on her face. She retrieves something from the small bag on her side and opens her palm toward us, so we can see what it is. “I’m not stupid-”, she declares, returning the can of mace to her bag, “-and I know everyone in this town anyway.” 

“Well, you do now”, I interject. She smiles at me and backs up my statement. 

“She’s right, I just met her. In fact-“, she shifts her gaze onto Wynonna sternly, “-We became acquainted when the power went out and she was there to help.” 

Wynonna grimaces and gives Waverly, what I’m assuming, is her best apologetic look. 

“I’d explain what took so long, but I’d really rather not in front of your new  _ friend _ ”, Wynonna pauses before labeling me as Waverly’s friend. They share one of those  _ only-we-know-what-this-means _ looks and Waverly narrows her eyes at Wynonna, before swatting her on the shoulder and dragging her away to talk to her, the whole time her cheeks a light shade of red. 

Several minutes of pretending to actually take an interest in any of the sports facts that a random dude in a jersey was spilling at me later, I am thankfully rescued by Waverly inserting herself into the very one-sided conversation, probably sensing my discomfort, and then removing both of us. She whisks us toward the door, promising the slurring guy at the bar that she would be back for her shift tomorrow.  _ So, she’s a bartender.  _ I let my eyes slip down for a few seconds on the way to the truck and can’t help but think,  _ I wonder what kind of uniform they have you in _ . I blush at my own imagination and help her into my truck. I realize, when I ask her where she wants me to take her, that her short-fused, firecracker of a sister isn’t with her.

“You know, if it’s out of your way, I can find another way home. Actually it’s pr-“, I cut her short, not wanting her to waste her breath. 

“Waves, I wouldn’t be me if I let you walk home, especially in the dark. Now, stop worrying yourself and tell me where to go.”, I don’t want to come off as bossy, but I do want her to stop apologizing for everything. Also,  _ when did I start calling her Waves?  _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little fic! Have a great rest of your day/night! :)


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